Fable of the cowardly lion
by Doctor Panacea
Summary: What happens when Quirrell is late to announce the troll's arrival in the castle ? An unlikely trio joins forces to survive (Maybe ?) and find a way back home. (...Is that really necessary ?)
1. Chapter I: Down the rabbit hole

Disclaimer : Me not own anything (look at my wonderful angliche!)

* * *

Chapter I: Down the rabbit hole.

In which some people would have been better off not leaving their beds.

* * *

October 31st, Neville decided as he poked a potato with his fork in the great hall, wasn't a day he liked. For several reasons, that all stemmed from this particular night.

The first being the Dark Lord's fall.

While Neville never was one of his supporters, far from it, His disappearance and the Potters' death caused two things : The loss of his own parents to the wand of the demented Bellatrix Lestrange née Black and the creation of Harry Potter's myth. Because of those two elements, Neville has been subjected to an immense amount of pressure from both his family and the pureblood society in general. If a measly half blood (It didn't matter if said halfblood's parents were amongst the best and brightest of their age, often thought the boy cynically while he received the 'proper' instruction) could do it, so could the Heirs. Following this, a contest between pureblood families took place, the so called adventures of Harry Potter acting as a reference. As of now, no one managed to wrestle a dragon at age nine. Rumor has it that the Malfoy tried with a boy named Orion, supposedly younger brother of Draco. The dragon ate him instead. Well, it was written in the Quibbler, so it couldn't be true, right ?

Another problem was Lily Potter, née Evans. She was the figure brandished by the muggleborn equalists as the true vainquisher of He-who-must-not-be-named, and became the symbol of the separation of the Light and the Dark. As an enchantment mistress, well on her way to the ancient runes masteries and a woman slightly lacking on wizarding morals, she could have used dark magic, like human sacrifice or other things as unsavoury, to stop him, which divided even more the noble houses, leaving the Light divided in three parts; pro-pureblood who refused the Evans theory, those who thought that Lily won using dark magic, and a bunch of fools that thought the Dark Lord was vainquished by Pure Love. In the End, the 'Grey' side had to cut in and affirm that it was Potter that defeated Him before Light and Dark started to fight magically over the question. The tensions between purebloods and muggleborns increased because of that though, and Neville had to often pay the price for it at school, being a pureblood from the Light side, slytherins decided he was a muggle lover thus started mercilessly bullying him. As if his gran's desperate attempts to raise him as proper pureblood heir uncle Algie's repeated attempts to 'bring out his magic ' (read, get him out of the way to get the inheritance) weren't already enough to make him into an introverted person, that definely did.

More people joined the tables now, but Neville didn't see his bushy haired friend, Hermione Granger, here. Their friendship wasn't one of the strongest here, both children keeping the other at arm's length for fear of being hurt, but it was still enough to comfort them somehow. The fact Hermione helped him not to get killed during potions was a nice bonus. He was about to leave to the tower when he heard Lavender Brown, a fellow gryffindor first year speak of the missing girl.

"...and I looked before coming here, she's still at it !"

Neville looked at the blonde haired girl, who was visibly engrossed in her conversation with her best friendand roommate, Parvati Patil, he reminded himself, breathed in deeply to summon his courage and tapped her lightly on the shoulder, attracting both their attention. Feeling like a deer under the headlights, he forgot what he was here for during a moment, before shaking his head, clearing his thoughts.

"A-ah! Erm... Sorry. I'm looking for Hermione, a-and... I wasn't trying to be rude! But I kind of heard you conversation. Sorry. You wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you ?"

The girl looked at him, with the same predatory glint his gran had in her eyes when she saw good gossip material and he felt the need to shrink away from her. He chastised himself, he was a lion on a mission! He couldn't run away because of the older girl who was giggling at him , a demented look in the face while the feminine quidditch players were cooing at him and their fingers seemed to extend like claws ready to pinch his round cheeks to the death and ohmerlin why did he have to want to play hero again ? And Trevor the coward left him to face that trial alone, AGAIN.

"But of course I know where your _girlfriend _is! You know, Ron told her that she didn't have any friends and _Harry Potter _agreed with him, poor thing has been crying all of the afternoon in the girls' bathroom. You're going to cheer her up right? Right ?!"

His survival instinct went in maximum alert and he excused himself, running towards the girls' restroom followed by creepy giggles. The day he'd understand girls would be the day he'd become a competent wizard. Several minutes later, he finally arrived in front of the Forbidden Room, where no man would dare to enter, lest he be ripped to pieces by a bunch of enraged furies, or mocked by his fellow males for the rest of his life. The girl's restroom, from where he could here sniffling noises, probably from his friend.

_Courage, all of gryffindor already thinks you're going to confess your undying love to her, it can't get any worse than that._

Squaring his shoulders, determination swelled in his chest and he tried to enter confidently , before tripping on his own feet, failing pathetically at his given objective. Or did he ?

He heard someone laughing weakly and turned his head, still on the ground, to see Hermione.

Red faced, eyes puffy and full of tears, a running nose and her hair even puffier than usual, she wasn't really a sight for sore eyes right now. The brunette seemed to remember where they were and put her hands on her hips, trying to sound stern, her hiccups ruining the effect.

"Why are you here ? This is the girl's toilets, you could get in trouble if someone caught you there." After a moment, she added hesitantly, trying to pass it as an afterthought "Do ... Do you need help to get up ?"

Neville groaned a bit and shifted, slowly getting back on his feet. The Hermione he knew would already have used a leviosa to get him up without asking him. Whatever words Weasley used, they were far more effective than even he would have thought.

"It's okay, I'm just getting acquainted with the floor. It's much cleaner than the boys', I'll have to send my compliments to the house elves." Was what he wanted to say. what got out , though, was far less sarcastic.

"It's okay. Err, I was looking for you. I... I heard about what Ron said. I know I'm not the best friend around, probably the worst even. I mean I'm pretty stupid, I can't get any spell or potion right, I'm not handsome and famous , or with a big and warm family, I will never be any of those things b-but Hermione..." He breathed deeply, his head spinning because of the stress. Why was talking to a girl that bloody hard?!" It hurts that you decided I didn't matter to you because two of our housemates said so. Even though we aren't the closest, you matter enough to me that I went after you... And I've probably overstayed my welcome so I'll wait outside."

After his inspired speech, our hero went out of courage and scrambled towards the corridor, where he bumped into someone that revealed himself to be Percy Weasley. Who probably heard everything he said if the approving nod he was giving him was any indication. The prefect turned his attention to Hermione, who apparently followed Neville, a handcherkief having mysteriously appeared in his hand and motionned to the two of them to follow him.

"We have an emergency, you two , come with me to the common room."

The two first years walked after him towards the end of the corridor when Hermione , ever the curious one, decided that what Percy told them wasn't enough to her.

"Excuse me, but what is the emergency?"

Neville, having smelled a fetid odor behind him turned around, paled dramatically and squeaked the answer "T-Troll..."

The redhead nodded "Exactly, a troll infiltrated the school. The professors have put the school on lockdown and gone to deal with it in the dungeons. Wait, how did you..?"

Sadly enough, the prefect never could finish his sentence, Neville pushing his housemates towards the stairs with all his feeble might and whispering urgently.

"There's a mountain troll right behind us!"

The three decided that making a run for it was a very good idea when they all got to see the beast, who was looking at them, seeming particularly hungry. It finally understood that its prey had remarked it and started to run after them while they reached the middle of the stairs. Sadly, while it wasn't normally quick, the average troll lived in mountains, thus more adapted to move on accidented terrain. Like stairs.

* * *

Percy was dragging the scared first years with him after having sent a message to the professors when he noticed that the troll's speed had increased, since it used all of its four limbs to climb after them. He did the only thing he could think of, freezing the stairs after them to make it slip ,with moderate success, as it slowed down a bit, not abandoning the chase either.

There was a problem though, because the castle was on lockdown, every door was magically closed, so efficiently that an alohomora wouldn't open it. That's how our three exhausted students found themselves trapped, a locked door on one side, and an angry troll on the other. Percy looked over his shoulder and saw that Neville was out of it. Cursing, he took a deep inspiration and lifted his wand with as much assurance as he could muster. No way he was dying there, there was too much he wanted to do, ace his OWLS and NEWTS, ask Penelope out, outprank the twins and eventually become minister of magic ! Magic would be useless to fight it, there had to be a way to escape it. The beast was tall enough, it might work , if it didn't though...

The redhead shook his head and readied himself. The troll was starting to move, it was his signal.

Running towards the troll, he ducked under the incoming club and casted aguamenti then glacius to allow him to slide behind it from between its legs.

"Accio, Hermione! Accio Neville!" Once he got up, the first years were besides him. He grabbed both of them and was making a run towards the stairs when something appeared in his peripheral vision. He could only cast a basic protego in time and that was what probably saved his life when the troll's blow projected the three of the towards another dead end, one that ironically had a tapestry of a man clubbed to death by trolls.

Percy couldn't stifle the scream that went out of his throat when felt the club break through his shield, his wand and his arm. Actually he didn't feel too bad, but yet again, he had wool in his ears, his head was swimming and he was seeing fireflies everywhere. Ah, someone was carrying him ? That was nice of them, he'd have to thank them or his mother wouldn't let him live it down.

* * *

As a matter of fact, Neville (who had been waken up by the accio) and Hermione were trying to carry the prefect, who was too out of it to do it himself, towards a door Hermione saw but the troll was catching up to them quickly. Hermione reminded herself of what she read in a book .

One can turn his body into steel, but not his eyes. It was not to be taken literally in this case, but it did make her notice that an obvious weak point of the troll was his eyes.

She aimed her wand at its head and casted the most powerful light spell she knew while covering her eyes with her arm. Luckily enough, Neville was too focused on getting Percy to the door to look at what Hermione was doing, and the prefect slipped into inconsciousness, which kept them from beig blinded by the intense light generated by the first year. The problem was that now, Hermione too looked on the verge of unconsciousness. Neville didn't know how he did manage to carry both of them, later, his fellow first year would introduce him to the joys of adrenalin and human chemistry in general, but to him, right now, all that mattered was the satisfying click he heard when the door was locked behind them, and the fact it didn't break under the troll's blows.

Then everything went black and the gryffindors fell for what seemed to be an eternity.

* * *

As he landed hard on the ground Neville saw several people here, he couldn't hear everything and his vision was fading.

"... you here ?!"

"Please... Rose...down"

A pair of armored feet went into his field of vision and a calloused hand lifted his head, allowing him to see an auburn haired woman who was crouching next to him. the last thing he saw was her bandaged face and the eye tatoo on her forehead. Her lips twisted into an awkward smile as she spoke to the unconscious boy, ignoring the old man and furious woman behind her.

"There you are, I was waiting for you."

* * *

A.N.: Eight times. Eight. Fricking. Times. I had to rewrite it from the start because the file disappeared. Seriously, from it simply disappearing, to me losing my USB key, to my computer dying on me, it's getting ridiculous! Dat's why I'm posting it before making the other chapter , to be sure that this time, it does NOT disappear. Besides, it's not like anyone will read it ~

So, yeah, Neville Hermione and Percy will be a time, because I think they are very interesting characters. We have Hermione, the girl genius, bookworm and lonely, the wizarding world having betrayed the expectations she built reading books (and hey, the Silmarillon and Lord of the rings were already out, no chance she did not read it), Neville , infamous cowardly lion, who couldn't count on anyone but himself for most of his life before Hogwarts and Percy. Oh, Percy. So righteous, hard headed and polite he seems anally retentive. He's probably the most underdevelopped of them all, and garnered lots of undue hate. I mean, his heart is in the right place, he never joined the death muchers, went to fight at Hogwarts and his own brother died on him, in front of him, because he dared to express himself while cracking a joke.

Fable crossover, we already saw three important characters, and I'll put in lots of hints to the plot that hardcore Fable (TLC) players should be able to notice.

Constructive reviews are welcome, flames will be used to melt marshmallows.


	2. Chapter II: Very bad trip

Disclaimer : I don't own anything. Except my Harry Potter books and the version of Fable installed in my computer. (Well, I used to own it anyways, rest in peace, my previous computer, I will always remember the all nighters we had together to finish that game withouta guide.)

I need a betaaaaaa, but I'm too damn lazy to get one ~

* * *

Chapter II: Very bad trip

In which Neville joins the dark side and Percy is a paranoid Weasley

* * *

The first thing Neville decided when he woke up, was to turn around and go back to sleep. Then he remembered the troll, the chase , the fall and sat up, groaning, his whole body aching in protest. Running away from the troll had to be the most physical and dangerous exercise he ever had, even uncle Algie leaving his newly acquired acromantula to 'play' with him had been easier to deal with. Who knew a mandragora's scream could kill spiders too ?

Looking wearily around, Neville saw Percy in a bed next to his. The redhead definitely had seen better days, his left arm in a cast, his skin even paler than usual, his nose bandaged, glasses and wand nowhere to be seen. Speaking of which, his own (father's) wand was also absent.

"Ah ! Neville!"

He turned his head and saw the last member of their improbable trio sitting, legs crossed against the wall on his left, which was covered from the ground to the top of the windows by bookcases, the girl was surrounded by piles of books, from which he could safely guess that she woke up hours ago. He felt really upset about that, since he was the one who did the least of them, Percy used his magic without a pause for ten minutes and Hermione used... well, he couldn't really know what kind of spell she used, probably a blinding spell on it, but it used up a lot of magic. He did nothing but faint from fright, what would his gran say to him ?

"Neville ?"

Snapped out of his brooding, the pureblood gave an embarrased smile to his friend.

"Sorry Hermione, I was just... the troll..." He finished with a shudder, that thing was truly abominable, how come it could enter in the school anyways ? The wards should have prevented it!

The girl nodded " I read in Hogwarts, a history, that trolls had left the area surrounding Hogwarts centuries ago because the monsters repelling wards were too powerful for even their hides to counter. But listen, I've asked around to the people coming here to take care of us and somehow, we're not in Hogwarts anymore, and if this book is right, we're in _Albion_ !" The excited tone in her voice was worrying him a bit." _The _Albion, old England, the Albion of Merlin and King Arthur! And even more, all those theories on parallel dimentions, they were true! We're not just in our Albion, but in another world entirely! Oh that's so exciting Neville! Think of all the scientists that would kill to be in our place!"

The pureblood could honestly say that he couldn't understand half of what she said. Probably muggle things, since the 'science' word was present. He still decided to ask for explanations, as the girl seemed to be relaxed enough, it couldn't be that serious.

" Errr... Hermione ?" How could he tell her without attracting her 'righteous ire' against the pureblood's 'backward traditions and knowledge' " You know ...we, traditional Pureblood, are err... not exactly on touch with the latest science thingies..."

She gave him an horrified look before complying with his unformulated request.

"You don't even have theories about other worlds ? Oh my... Well, no matter! Parallel dimentions are supposed to be replicas of our own universe, that evolve in patterns similar to ours. They can be almost identical, or very different , and it's not exactly precised how they are kept from colliding, some think they vibrate following different frequencies, other think that the universes coexist on the same plane, others even think that some energy, that we could call magic, is the force that keep them separated." Neville's dull look was the only indication she needed to understand the she needed to simplify again." Hmmm, if you want a simpler explanation, look at this book." She raised a worn looking blue book, an atlas apparently, and waved it at him" This, is the representation of our universe, our planet earth, our stars et caterae. This one " Putting the blue book in front of her and lifting, this time, a red history book" is the other universe, the one we're in." she put it next to the first one, showing the air between them, then pointed from one to another. " The air is the mysterious barrier, and what the three of us did, was to travel from one to another."

Neville spoke up slowly, trying to twist his mind around the alien notions.

"So, that's like if the heroes from one book, got out of their book and found themselves in another book, like the people from the 'Illiad' found themselves in 'Quidditch though the ages' ?"

Hermione nodded, satisfied he understood, which prompted him to ask his other question, a sense of dread slowly spreading in his stomach.

"And, do you know how we go back to Hogwarts ?"

Her eyes widened with realisation, before she scratched her cheek sheepishly.

"Absolutely no idea." Her tone was entirely too happy to Neville's liking." But it's okay, I mean, someone back home will soon know we've disappeared, Percy's a prefect, and Dumbledore's the director after all. Besides, the guildmaster Weaver already said we were welcome to stay here as long as we needed. He even accepted to teach us following their own system of magic!"

Yup, his friend had lost it. Breathe in, breathe out, and thank whichever supreme force exists in this universe that he did NOT find himself stuck with worse company, in a more unfriendly place. Now, he tried to think rationally, two choices were offered to him. He could either ruin his health, the only thing he could count on right now, worrying about everything, or stop thinking, grab the herbology book Hermione was tantalizingly waving under his nose and wait for someone to rescue them. He did learn that in case of kidnapping, one should stay put and try to get the kidnappers to forget them, less chances to be hurt.

_I guess it's like the slytherins said_, thought Neville with a sigh_, if you can't beat them, join them._

He then took the book anf fell into the blissful oblivion that herbology always caused into him. No more gran, uncle Algie, pureblood expectations or wizardry, only him, the plants and ooooh, their mandragorae didn't scream...

* * *

When he woke up, Percy felt as if Fred and George used him for 'the most important duty of training their accuracy with a bludger to avoid disfiguring the fair, almost certainly female chasers while sending the slytherins to a certain death' (read: target practice) again. He lifted his hand to his face and touched his nose experimentally. Definitely broken and oh joy, he had the two black eyes to go with it.. The fact he has problems to breathe was a sign of at least bruised ribs.

He'd have to get back at the two pests for this.

He then tried to sat up using his other arm, to no avail. The redhead forced one of his eyes open and found himself, in a unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar place and for the life of him he couldn't remember why he was here. Surely he should be at the infirmary with that kind of damage, right ? So why was he in a definitely not white room, covered in bandages and his wand arm in a cast ? He shifted uncomfortably, trying and failing to keep his arm in a position where it would not hurt. He heard a page being turned and quickly located the origin of the noise, which was a middle aged woman, clad in rather provocative clothes of a foreign fashion. She had short cropped greying black hair, mostly dark grey and red clothes that bared her muscled stomach and shoulders, black glasses and a red bandana. Percy was quite perplexed by his watcher's sense of fashion, for it was definitely not what witches liked to wear, nor was it what muggleborn females wore on their off days either.

The woman felt his gaze on her and lifted her nose off her book, staring back at him in a bored fashion.

"So you're up. I won't lose my time asking you how you came here, you don't look nearly half as powerful as you'd need to pull that off. Well, nobody can be me after all. I guess I should introduce myself, though why you wouldn't know about me is beyond me. I, am Briar Rose, _the_ famous female of the Heroes' guild."

His brow furrowed, quite upset at the disdain dripping from her voice. If he hadn't been sure that Professor Snape had no living relative, he'd have pegged her as his sister. He opened his mouth to introduce himself, as his education and position called for but the irritating female put a hand up, interrupting him.

"No need to introduce yourself, your little friends already did tell me of your... adventure, if it can be called like that." She snorted lightly, closing her book and getting up" Managed to survive being chased by a troll huh ? I remember when I killed my first one, I'd just hit fifteen. " Her smirk turned to a grimace of distaste and she started to talk louder towards the door, looking increasingly agitated "This is a waste of my time, I shouldn't be here babysitting an incompetent, I should be on a mission to stop that...!"

An old man , followed by a blind woman who had her hands on two of his housemates' shoulders cut her before she could express her true feeling on the subject in explicit words.

"Thank you, Rose, we'll take over from now on. There is a quest card waiting for you."

Briar Rose huffed and strode out of the room, throwing a dark look at the blind younger woman, who kept a blank expression, ignoring her completely.

"Good evening lad, I should ask you how you feel, but I think we both know the answer to that one."

While he usually would have waited for the man, obviously an authority figure, to continue with what was going to ba an introduction, Percy was tired, his arm, nose and head hurt, he had problems to breathe, would probably vomit soon, if his excessive salivation was any indication, he'd been insulted repeatedly by a Snape clone, he didn't know where he was, how he came to be here besides the fact a troll was probably involved, and two of his charges were with total strangers, which was entirely too far from his comfort zone. He was honor bound to protect them, now way in the bloody hell he'd let them out of his sight, being a prefect was serious business, in or out of Hogwarts. How would he be able to inspire the future generations to follow his example if that was what they ended up seeing ?

"I'm sorry for my rudeness, sir, but those two are my responsability, and as such, I'd like to ask you to kindly let them come here. I don't feel comfortable letting them in the presence of strangers whose motives I have yet to discover."

He didn't know what he said that was funny, but it must have been downright hilarious for the senior was chuckling in his moustache.

"Of course m'boy, I wouldn't want you to feel too uncomfortable, after all, you're wounded , with one arm and three ribs broken, your focus smashed to pieces, in an unfamiliar place and alone against several hundreds of the strongest mages of the country. Obviously, you're not to be taken lightly, far from it."

Said like that, Percy was feeling foolish, his ears were heating up and felt the intense need to hide under his covers. Now he thought about it, the diminutive man did emit an aura similar to Dumbledore's. Maybe, and the thought frightened him to no end, more powerful, for while he was smaller than even him, his musculature, or what was hinted of it, clearly was superior to anyone's in this room and the way he was moving, like one of the wizarding war auror veterans screamed of experience in fighting and killing . The man in front of him would not hesitate to snap his neck if he saw him as a danger.

Deciding he'd like to stay alive, thank you very much, he ducked his head muttering apologies.

"No offence taken, don't worry. If anything, that shows your dedication to your duties. Though it is admirable, you're in no state to do anything right now. As I was going to say, I am Weaver, master of the Heroes' Guild, and this is Theresa, one of my... friends. She'll be your legal guardian during your stay here."

Percy's hearing picked up the slight hesitation in the man's voice as he spoke of this Theresa. He'd need to keep an eye on here, she looked the shady type, with all those tribal marks and... Were those blood traces he saw on that armor ?

"This country is called 'Albion'. According to the young miss Granger, your plane is several hundreds years older than us. Things must have gone terribly wrong for magic to have gone in hiding and ... Oh , dear."

Percy was about to ask what was wrong but a wave of nausea struck him and he decided to keep his mouth shut. His head was swimming and the noise of a door being slammed open worsened his headache, so did the screaming that accompanied it.

"You send me to chase after Trolls ?! Is that a joke? What the Jack are you thinking! I'm one of this guild's best, I won't stand this humiliation any longer, first acting as a babysitter for a brat, then as pest control ?!"

Her voice was grating on his nerves, Percy decided. Especialy since she was screaming next to his bed when a devious idea climbed up his damaged brain. She wanted a brat ? He was more than happy to oblige. Now, he was usually better than this, but he was ill, tired, frustrated and that old cow insulted him again! Dizziness and nausera made it hard to aim but with the last of his stength, he managed to bend and vomit on her shoes. Then gave her the most innocent smile he could muster and fainted again. He was the twins' older brother after all.

* * *

What is that sorcery ? Another chapter, less than 24 hours before the first ? Don't get used to it guys, I'll post as soon as they're written, so the updates will be irregular ~

Special thanks:

Well, thanks, Guest (even if I don't know who you are) for your positive review, that's always nice to read while I was working on my chappie 2. Glad you like that idea of a trio, I really couldn't write a story starring HP, even though he's the hereo, he's got enough screentime like that damnit. And before anyone ask, I won't bash anyone, especially the firsties that we won't see in the rest of this fanfic because seriously, they're eleven, who can say they had the maturity of an adult at eleven ?

And to eveapplefields, geez, you make me blush. In fact no, you don't, that'd be creepy. Glad you like the dialogues, I was fearing it was a bit too forced, and then I realized none of the three was really used to conversing with others, for their own reasons, so of course they needed to be awkward .

I'll continue to answer to the reviews I get, but I can't promise the answers to be long, it will depend mostly of the quality of the review itself. I think that was all, feel free to ask questions and off to fanfic-ing (YES that's a word because I said so.)


	3. Chapter III: Not in Kansas anymore

Disclaimer: Do you own Harry Potter and Fable ? If so, could you pretty please give them to me ?

* * *

Chapter III: Not in Kansas anymore

In which Hermione is PMSing, Neville is exploring, and Percy gets beaten up. Again.

* * *

Two months after their arrival, the three wizards somewhat got used to the Hero's Guild's lifestyle. Well , two of them anyways.

Hermione Granger was not a happy camper. Once the initial hype of being thrown headfirst in her dreamed medieval fantasy world passed, she was quickly introduced to the problems that living in a medieval era entailed. Namely, hygiene. No plumbery, meant no toilets, no hot showers and no washing her teeth three times a day, which was utterly revolting. Neville and Percy didn't really see the problem, since they knew charms to get around that, even if in the prefect's case, he had to use Neville's father's wand since his was broken, but still, if she couldn't feel the water cleaning her, Hermione would feel dirty, and she didn't like feeling dirty. At. All.

Worse, even , was the fact that this morning she woke up feeling wet , her abdomen killing her and saw blood in her bed flowing from her nether regions. Her scream woke her roommates up (Yes, she shared rooms with Neville and Percy because those people didn't see what was wrong with leaving people of the opposite sex room together!), Percy realized the situation quickly, bless his soul, since his sister was apparently on the precocious side, and was taught the charms to deal with it by his mother. She didn't get why Neville was looking at him with pity in his eyes, but a nasty glare from her kept him from saying anything. Her best friend he might be , but if he was standing between her and the pain killing spell the older boy was casting on her, she'd show no mercy. Once the incident was dealt with, the three of them got dressed in scratchy, basic acolyte clothes and out to tu common hall to eat an very unhealthy breakfast made of grease,meat and more grease. According to the hooded woman accompanying them, they would need the energy, and there were enough apple trees, berry bushes and the likes to eat fruit if they felt peckish during their exercises. Percy called out softly to her and showed her that Theresa was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs. If the reverent stares and open mouths she got were any indication, that woman was famous and widely respected by even heroes.

Of course, Hermione read as much as she could about The Guildmaster and Theresa.

Weaver, Guildmaster of the Heroes' guild was by far the world's most powerful will user, said to be able to raze acity in one spell! He was not a Light hero, nor a Dark one, prefering to favour balance and equality, even in the guild teachings, letting the apprentices choose their ways, even if he had to fight for it. which he did, for the dirigeants of Oakvale and Bowerstone wanted to outlaw teaching those that could turn towards the Dark. as a symbol of his will, he wore the emblem of the guild, Skorm and Avo united tatooed to his upper forehead.

Right after him, was Theresa, the blind seeress, also a powerful will user, able to see the future in her dreams despite her lack of eyes. Not much was known about her, apparently she'd been kidnapped and raised by bandits, which explained her... agressive clothing, and was the last living heiress of Albion's royal line.

Theresa was a slavedriver. The fact you managed to survive one of her training sessions meant she could push you even harder the next one. Percy was the one she pushed the hardest, because contrarily to the intellectual image he usually projected, he did practice to survive the Weasley Quidditch Matches, which were more akin to an airborne free for all than to a simple match. According to Theresa, he was more of a skill type than a will type and she told him quite bluntly that most of the higher tier spells would remain inaccessible to him, no matter how much he worked, so he should stop losing time trying to stall and come run with them or she'd show him why bandits were quivering in fear when hearing her name.

She was scary like that.

Sighing in contentment, Hermione was currently curled up in a comfortable chair, in front of a roaring fire with a massive tome of magic theory sitting on her crossed legs. One positive point in this was that once you became a teenager, they trusted you to be responsible with what you read, so no restricted area in the library. She looked at the window and estimated it was near midday. She'd have to go look for Neville, he probably got lost again and Percy was currently tied up , literally, as Theresa was teaching him to undo ropes and dodge a fatal blow while doing so. Luckily enough, she only used a wooden sword, but the pain she inflicted was a good motivator for the redhead to get the hell away as soon as possible. After stretching like a cat, she got up, put her book back to its place, got her wand and decided to visit Percy first, she was almost due to another dose of painkillers, Neville could probably wait a bit anyways.

* * *

Neville was currently in the guild woods, a bag of herbs in one hand, collecting medicinal plants and apples for the servants. Since Hermione and him got the day off for Theresa to focus on getting Percy to acceptable levels of skill, he decided to go around, to map the place. While he was vertically challenged, he knew how to read a map, since there was none, he'd have to do it himself. Adaptating to the Albionese life wasn't as hard as he thought it would, their customs and the purebloods' being remarkably alike, save for the latter to be much more focused on magic. Training was a bit harder, but another nice surprise was that his habit of looking over his shoulder and instincts, honed by years of life and death situation, allowed him to escape their teacher, leaving the two others to their fate. The problem was that Theresa was so satisfied that she gave him off to another teacher today, since apparently, he was a 'strength type'. He knew he wasn't really archmage material, but it still stung. Well, at least someone was willing to teach him.

Thunder, his new teacher, was a retired behemoth of a man, almost twice the size of the average human, with enough muscle to give a troll a pause. His personality was... special. A bit overbearing, as arrogant as one could be, but still good natured enough to correct him somewhat nicely. The young pureblood rubbed his shoulder, wincing. His teacher really didn't know his strength and dislocated said shoulder while trying to pat it to congratulate him for successfully beheading the dummy with his stick. Neville never knew he could fly that high.

The man gave him a day off to heal after being chewed out by the blind woman, who decided she'd still be in charge for his training after all.

He heard a buzzing sound and saw that he was surrounded. The creatures' beady black eyes were looking at their prey malevolently, and startead approaching. Neville gulped, vastly outnumbered, and lifted his training stick with renewed determination. The boy and them looked at eachother for a moment, then they attacked.

Neville smashed the first one's head with a horizontal slash and ducked to avoid the second one, who was attacking from above. Two others lunged and he had to roll out of the way. Deciding that being alone against many allowed him to play dirty, he threw a fistful of dirt at them, destabilizing them long enough for the boy to bring down his stick with all his weight, breaking their backs. He then tripped because of his loss of balance and fell, the weird, moving feeling on his bottom letting him know where was his fourth assaillant. He turned his head , disgusted and destroyed its head with his stick as it couldn't move. Breathing loudly, he looked around and found nothing. He was about to gather his things and go back when the brushes moved, another wave of his opponents slowly getting out into view. Narrowing his eyes, the boy let his bag delicately on the ground, before taking a stance and narrowing his eyes in concentration.

No way he'd let those damned beetles the fruit of hours of intensive foraging! That nice lady promised him a blueberry pie in exchange of those apples!

* * *

Five waves of beetles later, Neville was sore, covered in dirt and bruises where the pests got him, but his precious apples were still intact. He considered that was a victory in itself and stiffened as he heard leaves ruffling at his left. Seriously annoyed, he approached the brush and lifted his stick ofer his head, before bringing it down.

No , he didn't scream like a girl when an armored arm suddenly got out of the bush with a snakelike speed, snapping the stick in its middle when catching it. The arm let go of the pitiful remains of the deceased stick and Theresa appeared, looking as stoic as ever, followed by a half dead prefect. Neville blinked, trying to understand what just happened. The blind woman lifted Neville's bag and slung it over her shoulder, her boots crushing the beetles' corpses with a sickening noise.

"Good job with the beetles, they can be a nuisance if left alone. Though their corpses make a good fertilizer and their wings are one of the components of mana potions, but that's a lesson for another time. It's dinner time, let's go."

While Percy was too tired to do anything but follow the woman, Neville was horrified.

Even here, potions still hounded him!

After a detour to the servant's quarters, the group met with Hermione, who was eyeing the comatose redhead irritably, giving him her wand , then putting her hand on her hip and tapping her foot. It took Percy three tries to get it right before he fell head first in his plate. Neville tried to lift it as delicately as possible, but the older boy was too heavy and fell on him. Thunder, who was eating nearby took pity on him and accompanied the children to their bedroom, the inconscious one under his arm. After promising poor Neville to prepare some strength building exercises and dropping Percy in his bed, the dark skinned man went away, satisfied to have done a good deed.

* * *

The following day, the prefect had decided to teach them all he could about their world's magic, so that they would hopefully not be too behind when they got back. While Neville followed it dutifully, Hermione seemed strangely sullen during the lesson. Yet again, Hermione had been in a bad mood all this week, the redhead told the younger boy to leave it alone, and that she'd be back to normal soon enough. They couldn't do much though, because one hour in, their teacher found them, confiscated their wands and dragged the oldest to the archery training grounds, leaving the younger ones to Thunder's tender mercies.

* * *

Percy was currently savouring the guildmaster's surprise, expressed by his raised eyebrow. While the Weasleys weren't a noble family, like the Blacks or Longbottoms, and thus he didn't have to go through the sword lessons, he did know his archery.

Not that anyone home knew of that.

You see, Molly Weasley always had problems to keep the twins in line, so it often fell to Percy to help her. Because of that , Percy started to act more mature than he really was to do his assigned job correctly. the downside of it, was that his younger brothers decided he was to be their training dummy for everything, from pranks to aim with a bludger.

Of course, Percy couldn't get back at them magically for obvious reasons, and couldn't be seen getting back at them, lest he upset his mother, so he had to think for weeks on a solution, and finally found it. It took him years to learn how to use it, but after he hit twelve, after the first snows, Percy Weasley sat in a tree, bow and quiver at the ready, the arrows having been changed in the favour of simple straight sticks, waiting for his victims to appear.

Soon enough, the pests took off and started playing a game of two, and Percy struck. times after times, his sticks collided with the brooms, making the boys fall into the snow, again and again. Even to this day, they thought that particular spot in the backyard was home to a vicious tribe of bowtruckles and tried to catch them to avenge their bruised honor and sore bottoms. Bill caught him in action, but he merely laughed it off and ruffled his hair before telling the twins he didn't see anything, and if Charlie knew, he didn't say.

He should have known. He really should have known.

* * *

After his minute of glory, of beating the previous record, no one told him whose it was, Theresa decided tomake him pass another test. In which he had to dodge his sadist of a teacher's lightning bolts while trying to land an arrow on her. which was pretty hard since she could predict his every move. He didn't last ten seconds.

As he lay on his bed, still slightly electrified, Percy sighed, missing the nice, easy times back home, he really couldn't catch a break , could he ? He turned around , put his head on his arm, using it like a pillow and blinked away the tears that crept up in his eyes. He wanted to go home.

* * *

A.N.: Poor Percy, I turned him in a piñata, but it's for the sake of the plot!

I did take those characters because their thinking is different after all ~

If you want to comment about something off or don't understand something, review and I'll answer, though I can't go much deeper without spoiling ~

Or can I ?


End file.
